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Sierra and Ballast Point coming together in the Beer Camp pack to make a hoppy beer! Was very happy to see them choosing a hoppy style, Imperial Pale Lager was nice to see as well keep with the lager trend in the pack and keep the ABV high as many of the other breweries seemed to be doing. They used a lot of familiar hops in this like amarillo, cascade, centennial and nugget to name a few so I knew that this was probably going to be pretty good. As mentioned before I did drink this fresh and make my notes just haven’t had a chance to get the review online until now. Electric Ray comes in at 8.5% ABV and 70 IBUs.

Appearance: Light copper color hazy with a 1 finger head. Had some nice lacing as I drank it down. Little darker than I would have liked to see.

Nose: Citrus fruit, good amount of floral notes, little piney and definitely some pineapple. Lot of pale pilsner malt in the nose as well. Not as explosive of a nose as I would have liked, maybe I have been spoiled with all the amazing hoppy lagers from Jacks Abby I have been drinking but this wasn’t where I would have liked it to be.

Taste/Mouth: Floral and citrus hop flavors with a good malt presence. Grassy and cracker malt especially medium carb and some heat coming from the alcohol on the back end. More heat and malt than I was expecting for sure. Kind of anticipated the malt when I saw the color, I understand trying to balance it but it kind of undermined a lot of the good hop bitterness and flavor I would have liked to get.

Price/Availability: One time only for the Beer Camp Across America pack.

Overall: Was pretty letdown by this one from two breweries who are on top of the hoppy beer game. Wasn’t bad but it wasn’t as masterfully crafted as I was expecting it to be. Like I said before I have definitely been spoiled with the hoppy lagers from Jacks Abby but I thought Ballast and Sierra would be able to make an IPL on a similar level.